


Downtime on Counterweight

by elestaus



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 00:55:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17571224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elestaus/pseuds/elestaus
Summary: The Chime takes a breather between missions. Aria sees how her teammates get on with each other.





	Downtime on Counterweight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DragonEyez](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonEyez/gifts).



Aria’s boot heels clanged on the metal ramp leading up into to the belly of the Kingdom Come. There wasn’t any need to keep quiet. This was a little-used corner of the spaceport where the majority of the ships you saw were either private vessels awaiting repairs or part of the Technocracy’s ever-growing fleet of decommissioned delivery barges.

No one was likely to notice four fugitives living out of the stripped-down ship with the missing rear-left engine. And if they did? That’s what bribes were for.

Aria set the bag of pastries from Constellation Coffee down on a table once she was inside. She’d told the others she needed a drink after their last mission and split from the group. The payment they had received wasn’t all that they’d hoped for – there’d been one or two fuck-ups during extraction and realistically they probably should’ve negotiated harder in the first place – but it was enough to cover their debts for now. Aria had lingered over her coffee before heading back to the ship, where the others were presumably already waiting. The pastries were for them. A consolation from Constellation.

AuDy was absent from their usual spot at the helm but it didn’t take long to find Cass and Mako.

“Hey Aria!” Mako called out on seeing her, and made an attempt to rise from the couch he lay sprawled on. His upper body could only manage about a 45º angle before his strength failed him and he sank back down with a wheeze. Cass was there in an instant, kneeling beside him and taking his temperature with a hand on Mako’s forehead.

“Is he alright?” Aria asked in alarm. Mako had seemed fine when they parted ways before, his usual high spirits undiminished by the day’s misadventures.

“It came on suddenly after we got back,” Cass explained.

“I just,” Mako started, and Aria’s alarm vanished on hearing the exaggerated tremor in his voice, “might’ve overdone it a bit. You know how fogging stuff takes it out of me. And there were all those security drones…” Mako made a noise that sounded like a tablet running out of battery. “Gotta plug me back in.”

“You’ll be okay,” Cass assured him, pressing Mako’s hand with greater tenderness than Aria was used to seeing from them. “Try not to exert yourself.”

“Thanks, doc,” Mako answered in an almost-whisper, visibly squeezing Cass’ hand in return. “You’re a keeper.”

“The important thing is to get as much rest as you can. That and getting your blood sugar back to normal,” Cass said as they produced a plastic juice pouch and punctured it with the attached straw before handing it to Mako, who gulped at it thirstily.

“I picked up some muffins and things from Constellation,” Aria offered, jerking a thumb over her shoulder towards where she’d left the bag.

“Oh, perfect!” Cass exclaimed, lighting up.

“I got it,” Mako said as he made another feeble attempt to rise, only for Cass to guide him gently but firmly back onto the couch.

“No you don’t. I’ll go get them. You stay here and rest.” Cass ruffled Mako’s hair before leaving, winking at Aria as they passed her in the doorway.

“What?” Mako demanded in his normal voice once the two of them were alone.

“Nothing!” Aria protested, feigning innocence. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Mako seemed about to retort, but then Cass returned carrying the bag of pastries, and he settled for noisily draining the last of the juice pouch instead. On her way out Aria could hear Mako thanking Cass in an even more piteous voice than before and had to bite her lip to keep silent.

-

Another day on Counterweight brought new things to worry about. That never changed, and this time it was a question of supplies, meaning that Aria, Mako, and AuDy were on a shopping trip. Cass had taken inventory of everything left in the ship’s kitchen and given them a detailed list of what to pick up, but had to bow out of accompanying them owing to a request from Koda Whitegloves.

“Apostolosian business,” was all Cass would say.

“Sounds pretty fishy to me,” Mako had replied, and Cass had needed to thump Aria on the back after a mouthful of coffee went down the wrong way.

The recycled air in the domes was as hot and sticky as ever on their walk back to the nearest maglev station that would take them to the spaceport. AuDy carried the plastic water jugs, boxes of dehydrated food, and all-important medical supplies while Aria trailed behind, absorbed in watching the news on her holo-bracelet. Mako, for his part, buzzed around them, seeming to have made a full recovery after his terrible exertion the day before.

“Hey let me carry something,” Mako said, pausing for a moment at AuDy’s side. “You shouldn’t have to deal with all that yourself.”

“I am many times stronger than you, Aria, and Cass combined,” AuDy informed him flatly.

“I know, I know, no need to rub it in.” Mako fidgeted, looking for another angle of attack. “Besides it’s not about that! It’s about team building. Sharing the burden, you know? I don’t want anyone saying I don’t pull my weight around here.”

Aria opened her mouth, about to interject, then shut it again. Earlier Mako had argued vehemently that it wasn’t fair that he should have to chip in for ship repairs when he was: A. not the one who crashed it, and B. not responsible for drawing the enemy rigs into attack range in the first place.

Mako must have misinterpreted her look of consternation.

“Aria’s injured, obviously,” he said, referring to a superficial gash on her arm that Cass had fixed the night before, leaving no visible trace of the wound, “but I’m in top shape. C’mon and pass me something.”

“No one would say that,” AuDy replied.

“What?” Mako blinked, briefly thrown off his normal rhythm.

“No one would say that you don’t pull your weight,” AuDy clarified. “You are a valued member of the Chime, Mako Trig, and I appreciate your presence.”

“Oh.” Another beat passed while Mako processed this before finding his groove again. “Well yeah, I mean, you’re pretty great yourse-”

“But if you want to carry my books home, I will allow it,” AuDy said, depositing a portion of the groceries into Mako’s unsuspecting arms and striding on ahead.

“You want a hand with that?” Aria asked in a low voice once AuDy was out of their immediate earshot.

“Nah, I got it,” Mako answered with difficulty as he struggled to find his grip. “Showing them Huckleberry High might’ve been a mistake though. They know all the moves.”

-

Mako disappeared into his room (more of a closet, really) to trawl the mesh once they got back. Aria ducked out of sight as well, explaining that she needed to change out of her exhaust-scented clothes before dinner, and when she emerged Cass and AuDy were already deep in preparations. There wasn’t much room to maneuver in the ship’s tiny kitchen, but neither of them seemed to get in each other’s way, even with AuDy’s bulky robotic frame taking up fully a third of the available space. Pots boiled, pans sizzled, and ingredients passed between them with a speed that told of long hours working together.

“Care to test this for me, AuDy?” Cass asked eventually.

“I am prepared.”

With care, Cass lifted a long piece of spaghetti from the boiling pot in front of them and whipped it at the smooth plane of AuDy’s metallic torso, where it stuck. A moment of silence passed while they both waited to see if it would slide off.

“Al dente,” AuDy declared at last.

“Excellent.”

“Who’re we talking about?” Mako asked as he squeezed around Aria in the doorway. “Al somebody?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Cass answered, wiping the moisture from AuDy’s front before leaning in to kiss the spot where AuDy’s head might be, if they had a definable head.

“Hey where’s mine?” Mako demanded, pointing at his lips.

“Oh sorry, here.” Cass retrieved a second piece of dripping spaghetti and flung it in Mako’s direction, making him yell and duck out of way. That got a laugh out of everyone in the room (apart from AuDy, who never laughed) and Cass obliged Mako with a kiss on his forehead once he’d straightened up.

All four of them took their seats at the table. AuDy didn’t eat, of course, but meals aboard the Kingdom Come wouldn’t be the same without them. Over dinner the topic ranged from Aria’s work on a song she planned to debut at her next singing engagement – a bluesy number about staying hopeful and searching for love in a loveless and cynical world – to Mako’s efforts at finding new clients for them in the mesh.

“Are you still doing the shark thing?” Cass asked during a lull.

“What? Yeah.” Mako blinked at them. “Are you kidding? It’s my look. You gotta have a look.”

“But with the whole dorsal fin and everything?” Cass held their hand up flat and vertical at the top of their head to serve as a visual aid.

“Yeah. Pointy teeth too,” Mako bared his own, non-pointy teeth for emphasis, then snapped back to reality as a new thought occurred to him. “Why, is that like, cultural appropriation for you?”

“No,” Cass said, dabbing delicately at their mouth with a napkin, “It’s just silly looking. I love you, Mako, but you deserve to hear the truth.”

“I think what you meant to say is it’s totally badass, in which case I agree. Thank you for your honesty.”

“Do you really think that, Aria?” AuDy asked.

Aria stopped in the middle of winding more pasta onto her fork. It had been several minutes since either of them spoke and she couldn’t think what AuDy meant.

“Do I really think what?”

“In your opinion, is it really a loveless and cynical world?”

“Oh. No, not really. It’s a just a song.” Aria put her fork down to better concentrate on what she was saying. “People expect that sort of thing if you’re a lounge singer. Or an ex-idol moonlighting as a lounge singer. Either you’re singing about some ex who did you wrong or it’s about the one who got away.”

“Kinda like how all of Cass’ music is about sad people who don’t know where they belong,” Mako chimed in, “because they’ve got an old-fashioned soul or whatever and the world keeps changing. I’m sorry babe but vintage rock sucks and any five seconds of a HyperCat song is better than Bruce Born-to-Run’s entire discography. And you deserve to hear the truth.”

“See? How could anyone think it’s a loveless world when these two are in it? All three of you, really,” Aria said. “You sure you aren’t about to go all Lady and the Tramp on that spaghetti?”

“Aria–” Cass started, embarrassed.

“How would that even work?” Mako cut in. “Like, realistically. Are there any pieces long enough? Maybe if we tied some together. We could even make it a three-way.”

“I do not eat,” was all AuDy had to say. A second later the transceiver in their vest pocket beeped and AuDy pulled it out to listen to the coded sequence of tones that followed.

“Orth has a job for us,” they announced once the message had finished.

“What’re the details?” Cass asked. Their entire attitude had changed the moment AuDy’s vest started beeping. Now they were all business.

“Orth will let us know tomorrow, if we agree to take it.”

“I’m not agreeing to anything until I know what he wants us to do.”

“We may not have the luxury of refusing,” AuDy pointed out.

There was silence from everyone at the table after that. AuDy was right, of course. They still had ship payments to make, on top of everything else, and spaghetti wasn’t free.

“Do not worry,” AuDy said, laying one hand on Cass’ shoulder. “Together, we are a large gang.”

Aria nearly choked on her strawberry seltzer. It wasn't even that funny, but something in AuDy’s flat, affectless delivery hit her in a way she hadn’t expected.

“Wow, good going AuDy,” Mako said as he handed Aria a wad of napkins to mop up the spray. “That should be the new metric for successful jokes. 'Does Aria forget how to drink fluids after she hears them, y/n?'”

“Thank you, Mako,” AuDy responded gravely. “I did not realize I was making a joke, so perhaps she is simply bad at drinking.”

“Fuck all of you,” Aria said, still laughing and coughing as she got up from the table, then added on seeing Cass’ wounded expression, “not you Cass, you’re an angel.”

Cass followed her into the corridor while AuDy set about cleaning up after the meal.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” they asked.

“Yeah,” Aria assured them. “I think I’ll turn in early though. Who knows what Orth’s gonna have us doing next.”

Aria’s mind kept circling back to the song as she got ready for sleep. Even with the allowances of the genre, maybe it was a little on the bleak side. In a world where the Chime could exist, and three quarters of the Chime was head over heels for itself, who knew what the next day would bring? It was the sort of thing you got so used to seeing – like Weight in the sky - that you forgot what it really signified. Love was real, and in their grasp, and if you wanted proof all you had to do was look.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Secret Samol! Huge thanks to [kismetNemesis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kismetNemesis) for help with some of the dialogue.


End file.
